2025 09 05

September 2025 Newsletter

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Life in Canada

What, Me Worry?

If you’ve never been to the Badlands in Drumheller, you’re in for a treat; the valley, gouged out of the surrounding farmland by glacier meltwater, resembles a landscape more suited to the moon than Earth.

But the Royal Tyrell Museum in Drumheller, which has been welcoming visitors since 1985, is an even bigger delight; a major restoration in 2024 has turned it into a must-see destination for anyone visiting Canada.

Using the latest exhibition technologies, kids of all ages are treated to an experience that is both fun and educational. Instead of just static displays, visitors can interact with maps and even create their own dinosaur, choosing from a selection of morphologies to sculpt fang-toothed monstrosities.

The theme of the museum is ‘life on earth’, and it follows the evolution of organisms from cyanobacteria to modern man. But one of the biggest goals is to explain the death of the dinosaurs during the end of the Cretaceous 63 million years ago; everything from a meteor impact to massive volcanic eruptions is explored in detail.

Personally, I think Gary Larson of The Far Side got it right;

Subscribers to Prime Unlimited can read all my books for Free!

Recipe; Breakfast Muffin Sandwich

This is a great way to start the day – just don’t tell your doctor!

Ingredients

1 egg

1 slice of cheese

1 slice of ham

1 English muffin.

Mayonnaise

Directions

Fry the egg in a pan, making sure you crack the yolk. Add in the slice of ham and top the egg with the cheese.

Toast the English muffin and coat it with a dab of mayonnaise. Top off with the ham, cheese and egg and serve with fresh fruit and coffee. Enjoy!

Movie Review

The Thursday Murder Club

Streaming on Netflix

I first read The Thursday Murder Club some years ago when it made a big splash on the best seller lists. Richard Osman is a well-known TV personality in the UK (and a very talented writer), who took the traditional English cozy and turned it into a publishing phenomenon that has sold over 10 million copies worldwide.

The series is set in a bucolic seniors home located in the rolling hills of southern England. Elizabeth is a former spy who chairs a club that goes over cold cases in the hopes of catching the murderer. Joining her are Joyce, a widowed nurse, Ibrahim, a retired psychiatrist, and Ron, a former union organizer.

Naturally, un-nabbed murderers tend to resent meddling, and their efforts attract threats that are thwarted through ingenuity and cake baking until the miscreants are ultimately exposed.

With any adaptation, the question of which genre prevails always arises. Does the story leap from the page and gain new life on the big screen, or is it a so-so rehash? With the likes of Ben Kingsley, Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan in the main roles, one might think the former, but the movie cuts too many corners from the narrative and leaves the result rather flat and pedestrian.

That said, The Thursday Murder Club is a delightful series, and I highly recommend you read the books!

TV Review

Wednesday, Season Two

Streaming on Netflix

OK, you have to be a fan of The Addams Family.

Created in the Sixties from the cartoons of Charles Addams, it featured Gomez, his wife Morticia, their children Pugsley and Wednesday, as well as a cast of misfits including Uncle Fester, butler Lurch and Thing, a dismembered hand.

The latest reincarnation is the brainchild of Tim Burton, and focuses on Wednesday (played in brilliant deadpan by Jenna Ortega), a Goth teenager with a penchant for necromancy.

In season one, Wednesday saved Nevermore Academy from destruction. Season two begins with her return to Nevermore, where a murder of crows begin pecking eyes out.

Mayhem ensues, with the body count quickly surpassing most Schwarzenegger movies. Wednesday perseveres, however, and all that is ooky and spooky is saved (presumably for Season three). Dig it.

Book Review

Nothing Ventured

By Jeffrey Archer

This is the first in the William Warwick series, a highly entertaining police procedural set in London. William Warwick is the son of a prominent barrister who decides to forego the family business and instead become a copper with Scotland Yard. He subsequently falls under the wing of Detective Hawkley, who soon has Warwick and his fellow officers hard on the trail of murderers, drug dealers and villains.

None of it matches the hijinks experienced in real life by its creator, however. Jeffrey Archer has been a UK Member of Parliament and a life Peer in the House of Lords. He was also a client of latex-clad ladies and a guest at HM Prison Belmarsh for fibbing under oath during a libel court case regarding his nocturnal hobbies.

Nothing Ventured follows William and the gang as they pursue Miles Faulkner, an international art thief and all-around cad. Faulkner manages to stay one step ahead of the police as he shuffles his collection of Masters around the globe, all with the aid of his salacious wife Christina.

The series is not, by any means, Daggers Award material, but it is engaging fun and Archer takes tremendous advantage of his intimate knowledge of trials and prisons to give the reader an authentic feel for crime and punishment. I highly recommend the William Warwick series!

2025 01 08

January 2025 Newsletter

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Life in Mexico

Sometimes it feels like you’re back in the 1970s here in Mexico.

Folks are especially laid back about driving. Not enough room in the truck cab for all the kids? Just stick ’em in the back with the watermelons!

But, most of all, they don’t get in your face if you’re just weirding out. Many years ago, we finally finished paying off our condo. I called my pal Ross in Manzanillo and asked if anyone would care if we burned our mortgage papers on the beach.

“Hell, no!” he said. “They don’t even care if you burn your car on the beach!

Recipe: Pasta Puttanesca

Tradition has it that this dish was invented in a brothel in Naples where the girls would whip up a meal from whatever was cheap and plentiful. It’s a delicious recipe and super easy to make when you don’t have a lot of time to prepare!

Ingredients

2 Tsp of olive oil

1/4 white onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, chopped

1 cup of cherry tomatoes

3 anchovy fillets

¼ cup of chopped black olives

1 tsp of capers

1 tsp of dried oregano

½ cup of white wine

2 cups of cooked spaghetti

Chopped fresh basil and grated Parmesan.

Directions

Fry the white onion and garlic in olive oil. Add the tomatoes and simmer until they soften.

Add the anchovy, black olives, capers and oregano.

Pour in the white wine and reduce for a few minutes.

Add in the spaghetti and stir the ingredients together.

Serve in a bowl, garnished with fresh basil and Parmesan.

Enjoy!

Members of Kindle Unlimited Can Now Read Crystal Ball for Free!

FBI AGENT JACK KENYON is back! When a bomb in Myron Buckstar’s software lab kills an innocent woman, Jack and the crew are called in to find out if terrorists are targeting the flamboyant billionaire. They soon discover that the victim was a member of Scotland Yard working undercover on a mysterious case. As Jack pursues her murder, he uncovers a race to steal the Crystal Ball, an invention that allows its owner to peer into the future. Follow Jack from San Francisco to London as he pursues a host of murderers, conmen and criminals who will stop at nothing to achieve their goal.

Book Review

We Solve Murders

By Richard Osman

We’ve been reading Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series for several years now, and have loved every page. So we were excited to see that he’s branched out to We Solve Murders.

The book features Steve, a retired copper in the UK who lives in a tiny village where he spends his time at quiz night in the local pub and chatting on the phone with his daughter-in-law Amy, a professional bodyguard who works for Maximum Impact Solutions.

Things get hinky when Maximum Impact’s clients suddenly start being offed in spectacular fashion, setting up Amy as the fall gal. Amy, who is guarding Rosie D’Antonio, a famous author of bodice-rippers, has to hightail it with her client when the mysterious Francois Loubet puts out a hit on her.

Amy calls in Steve to help her solve the murders so that they can clear her name and chill. The result is a mayhem-filled romp from South Carolina to Ireland. Throughout the book, Osman’s wit and sense of absurdity keeps the pace at full throttle. I highly recommend We Solve Murders!

Movie Review

The Conclave

Streaming on Netflix

You might tend to think that the process to pick a new Pope would be about as exciting as watching mud dry, but The Conclave, based on the novel by Robert Harris, lifts the experience to the level of a political thriller.

Pope Francis has passed away, and it’s up to Cardinal Lawrence (played by Ralph Fiennes), to convene the Cardinals from around the world to pick a successor from its ranks. Leading candidates include Cardinal Tremblay (played by John Lithgow), and Cardinal Bellini (Stanley Tucci).

Of course, not all is serene. One by one, aspirants reveal their true agendas and skeletons in the closet, making Cardinal Lawrence’s job a living nightmare that no amount of prayer to the All-mighty is going to dissipate.

This is one of the best movies that I’ve seen in 2024, and will no doubt attract a slew of Oscar nominations, including best director for Edward Berger, best actor for Fiennes and supporting nods to Tucci and Lithgow (not surprisingly, there are no female roles in a story about the Catholic Church – Boo!). I highly recommend The Conclave!

Documentary Review

Hallelujah; Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song.

Streaming on Prime

Arguably one of Leonard Cohen’s most famous songs, Hallelujah is a secular poem to the divine that, if you ever bother to listen to the lyrics, is just weird.

But that didn’t stop everybody from KD Lang to Shrek from singing it. Now, director Daniel Geller has gone to the effort of creating a 2-hour documentary focused on its creation.

Cohen, who passed away at the age of 82 in 2016, was notorious for his approach to writing. He thought nothing of taking the better part of a decade to grind out a song, going through endless variations of meter and prose. He dragged the lyrics and score of Hallelujah around the world for years, until finally finishing a version.

The song was a flop; his record label refused to release it in the US. But it was a hit with fellow musicians. Dylan thought it was the best song he ever heard. Eventually, Cohen took to the road on an international tour and the world fell in love with it.

Hallelujah faithfully follows Cohen’s career using CBC archive footage, interviews with contemporaries, and performances by Cohen and pals. I highly recommend Hallelujah!

2023-10-02

October 2023 Newsletter

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Life in Calgary

We’ve been residing in Mexico for the last 12 years, so a lot has happened in our old home town in the intervening decade. We’ve had a chance to spend the last two months in town, and here are a few things I never thought I’d live long enough to see.

Co-op Cannabis

For those of you not from Alberta, the Co-op grocery chain was founded by the United Farmers of Alberta in the 1940s and is about the least likely organization in the province to open a chain of pot stores (except for the RCMP).

They have great names for the various weed varieties, including Purple Haze (too bad Buzz Light Year was already taken). But I’m kind of nostalgic for the days when you’d purchase a dime bag behind the high-school from the local JD. Somehow, paying GST on reefer is a bit of a buzz kill.

Calgary Central Library

The City of Calgary began planning this about the same time as the Pyramids of Giza.

The award-winning design was completed in 2018 at the cost of around $250 million. When it finally opened, thousands of citizens waited patiently in line to gaze upon the wood-clad interior and pinch CDs.

When we recently visited, the vast interior echoed with the sound of children’s delight as Librarians performed favorite books.

Best of all, however; they carry copies of Secret Combinations, Magnus the Magnificent and A Paris Moment! If you are a Calgary Library member, be sure to sign in on your card and request Joan the Saint and The Hotel Seamstress.

The Big Head

This sculpture, formally entitled Wonderland, was installed a few years ago in front of the Bow Tower in Calgary. The Spanish artist Jaume Plensa drew inspiration from the head of a young Spanish girl, and the interior the 12-m work of art can be accessed through a door. I recommend a visit to Co-op Cannabis before entering.

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Joan the Saint!

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Book Review

The Last Devil to Die

By Richard Osman

The concept of this mystery novel series is disingenuously simple; a quartet of retirees living in a seniors’ complex near Brighton start a club in which they investigate unsolved murders.

They are led by Elizabeth, a legendary former spy who is ruthless in her pursuit of perfidy. Her best friend Joyce loves to cook pound cake, while retired union leader Ron and former psychiatrist Ibrahim round out the crew. They are, in turn, aided by Bogdan, a mysterious Polish émigré, and Donna, a police inspector for the rural constabulary.

In this fourth installment, a delivery of heroin from Afghanistan goes astray and a friend of the murder club is found, well, murdered. The intrepid gang vows justice and goes in search of both the heroin and the killers.

The series is in the delightful tradition of the English cosy mystery in which amateur sleuths bring their unusual talents to bear on murder most foul. They are invariably a delightful blend of eccentric characters, convoluted plots and dry British wit. If you aren’t familiar with the Thursday Murder Club series, I highly recommend you give it a try!

Recipe: Chamorro de Cerdo

Chamorro de cerdo

Pork shank is a popular Sunday meal in Mexico. It is inexpensive, easy to make and absolutely delicious!

Ingredients

1 pork shank.

¼ cup of flour

1 Tsp of chili powder

1 Tsp of butter

Four carrots

1 cup of baby potatoes

½ a white onion

½ cup of water or broth

1 tsp of salt

Ground pepper

Directions

Pre-heat your oven to 400 F.

Mix the flour and chili powder together in a plastic bag. Insert the pork shank and lightly coat the meat. (Save 1 Tsp of the remaining flour and chili powder).

Fry the shank in butter, browning on all four sides.

Cut the carrots, onion and potatoes and place in the bottom of a cast-iron pot. Pour in the water or broth.

Place the shank atop the vegetables and bake in the oven, uncovered, for 30 minutes.

Cover and reduce heat to 350 F. Cook for a further two hours.

When the meat is tender, remove from the oven and separate the meat and vegetables.

Tent the shank and let rest for 10 minutes while preparing the gravy by mixing 1 Tsp of the remnant flour and chili mix with the drippings.

Serve each portion whole, or flake the meat off and serve on a platter. Enjoy!

TV Review

Lupin

Streaming on Netflix

This is a French series following the adventures of Assane Diop, the modern reincarnation of Arsene Lupin. The latter was a fictional gentleman thief popular in the early 20th century, a self-styled Robin Hood of the Paris underworld.

Diop, a master of disguise, uses his abilities and general chicanery to steal from the rich and, (ahem), keep it. In the latest series, his arch nemesis kidnaps his mother and extorts him into stealing some of the world’s most precious jewelry, including the invaluable Black Pearl.

Our anti-hero and his intrepid team pull a host of outrageous heists that bamboozle the police and infuriate the pampered owners of pricey baubles. Although the first installment of the series was delightfully entertaining, the writers and producers have taken the concept to a whole new level in this latest season. I highly recommend Lupin!